


Just One Yesterday

by missmallorymarie



Series: Missing Pieces [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/M, FTW, Gen, M/M, Other, Reader-Insert, Reminiscing, Science Project Partners, Self-Insert, let me live gdi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-12 16:17:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15343668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missmallorymarie/pseuds/missmallorymarie
Summary: After the events of the night, you find yourself unable to sleep. You take to looking back wistfully upon the early stages of your relationship with Shiro, way back when he was Mr. Star Pupil in your physics course at the Garrison. He drove you absolutely mad because you could not get a read on him for the life of you. But when you got stuck together for your term project, things began to change.





	Just One Yesterday

**Author's Note:**

> Hello friends. Welcome back! I know it has been almost two months since the last installment went up. I'm sorry. I really did mean to have this up before S6 (how WILD was that, btw???), but we both see how that went. 
> 
> A couple things:  
> First, I just want to reemphasize that I do try to make each of these story installments their own stand-alone works. Idk how much longer I can do that, as I'm working on wrapping up the main arc of this series. But! This particular one, I really tried to make it as ambiguous as possible with regards to MC's gender, particularly as a tribute to a dear friend of mine who loves fluffy bullshit and is finding his selection of x Reader works that are not a female MC...well...the pickings are slim. So this goes out to you, boo <3 
> 
> That being said, there is a reference to acts committed in the previous installment, which I did write from a female perspective. 
> 
> And also despite the fact that I try to make each piece a stand-alone work, this is still part 4 of a series. A series of which I am personally quite proud. A series of which the smut chapter has like, three times as much attention as the rest. You are under no obligation to read the full series if you don't want to. But, you are missing the big picture of the work if you don't, well, look at the big picture. So, shameless plug for this series which I have titled "Missing Pieces".
> 
> As always, enjoy.

You felt your blood curdle the second Dr. Schmidt had called out Shirogane’s name as your partner for the term project. This was the fifth time in a row you’d been paired with him, be it for a lab activity or a short research paper. But this? This was worth a quarter of the final grade and was nothing to sneeze at. And now you had to work with him, of all people? _Shiro_ , with his stupid bright-eyed and bushy-tailed schtick. He was always so nice. It was repulsive. You couldn’t tell what his angle was with any of this. People didn’t usually come to a place like this to be buddy-buddy with everyone they came in contact with. This was competitive. This was intense. This was war. So why was he so damn _sweet_ all the time?

You had thought that during your previous partnerships with the man that you’d be able to read him like a magazine after spending so much time together in close proximity. But alas, you still had absolutely squat. You glanced in his direction: front row of the lecture hall, second from the right. His eyes scanned the row behind him, as if looking to see where you were seated today. He smiled upon meeting your gaze. He must have taken a page from Tyra Banks at some point in his life, because that boy’s eyes were _expressive_ , to say the least.

You found yourself only half-faking the smile you shot him in return. Damn him and his twinkly eyes. You still didn’t see why you two had to be paired up. Your grades rivaled one another for the top position in the class. Wouldn’t it make sense to split you two up so some of the other students could benefit from both your brain power? Whatever.

Out of the corner of your eye, you thought you saw a couple students whispering and exchanging fist bumps. You couldn’t help but suspect that maybe those bastards had been behind this. Not just this project, but behind all the incidents prior as well.

You slouched back into the uncomfortable folding chair and listened as Dr. Schmidt explained the details of the term project. It was fairly straight-forward, but at the same time not a helpful description at all. Pick one of the topics that were left in the course materials and prepare a short lecture on said topic. There would be no final exam, and this would be The Big One as far as weighted assignments went. As for the actual lecture, your only requirement was to know your materials. The way you presented it didn’t matter. It was all up to you, working with your assigned partners to play teacher. Part of the grading would be on the way you worked together for the presentation.

Fighting the groans building within you, you considered the topics left on the schedule. You wondered if Shiro had something in mind. You were certain that he’d be bounding up to your side the second class was dismissed anyway.

And right you were. The expression on his face bore resemblance to that of a Labrador puppy upon his owner’s return. He called your name as you had attempted to make a stealthy escape, but to no avail. You stopped in your tracks and allowed him to catch up to you. His strides were long and quick, allowing him to catch up in an instant before you two began walking off toward the campus café. Your plan had been to catch a bite and then kill three hours reading fanfiction on your tablet until your evening classes started up. You guessed that plan was changed as of now.

“So I was thinking about the assignment, and I don’t know if you have any ideas yet, but I was thinking maybe we could do something with light!”

You cocked you head, intrigued. Wasn’t this guy planning to go into the pilot program? Why the interest in light?

“….but anyway, I thought it might be cool if we could use it as a segue into Einstein’s concept of spacetime and how light travels through it. I mean, maybe it’s a dumb idea but I just….”

 _Oh, the poor soul. Stop him before he babbles himself to death._ You took pity on him and cut him off before he could dig himself any further into the trench he was already halfway into.

“That actually sounds like a really neat concept. It’s not dumb at all,” you smiled at him sympathetically, giving him a pat on the bicep. You hadn’t noticed before but his arms were absolutely solid. _Christ_ , you wondered, what does he eat?

You swore you saw his cheeks glow a soft crimson hue. Your heart skipped one beat and landed on the next with a heavy thump before carrying on, business as usual. You shook it off as nothing as he continued to excitedly prattle off his schedule and figure out when to meet up and get started. He seemed genuinely psyched to get the ball rolling. It was almost charming, the way his demeanor lit up. His presence felt almost warm, in a way.

The two of you walked and walked until – Oh. Oops. You’d accidentally been leading and wound up at the door to your quarters. God damn it, you had meant to go get food. But you weren’t about to sacrifice your dignity in front of this guy and let him know of your blunder. Part of you then realized that he had essentially walked you home from class. Your heart did that thing again. Fuck.

“Well, uh, this is my stop,” you said through a nervous, halfhearted chuckle. “Thanks for making sure I got home safely, _pal_ ,” you said equally awkwardly, giving him a limp punch in the bicep. It wasn’t a sorry excuse to touch him again. Not at all.

He stretched and put one hand behind his neck like some kind of anime character.

“Well, I mean, it’s not a big deal. Don’t sweat it!” God. Him and that sickeningly sweet and innocent thing again. Why did he have to have such a big, bright smile?

You started to fiddle with your door before from him there came an, “Um…”

You turned to meet his gaze again.

“I was just…uh. Well, if we’re going to be planning this thing together, it’s going to be pretty time-consuming work and be really involved and all. So should we maybe, um, have each other’s phone numbers? Just so it’s easier to get in contact for research and setting up research sessions?”

There was no second guessing it this time around. He was officially a tomato in terms of complexion.

You couldn’t help but smile at him honestly this time around as you handed him your phone with the “add contact” screen ready for him to input his digits.

“Sounds like a good idea to me.”

He seemed nervous as he punched in his contact information and handed it back. You noticed he had filled out almost every field in detail. Full name, phone number, email, room number, and even the nickname field which read “Shiro” followed by an emoticon that was smiling and sticking its tongue out.

You sent him a tester message.

1:39pm –  
“Hi, it’s me!”

You realized it may be helpful to send him your full name as well so there wasn’t any confusion regarding spelling. You fixed that right up.

His phone dinged twice inside his pocket. He pulled it out to check, and with an, “Awesome! So I’ll see you…Saturday?” he began taking his leave.

You nodded and bid him farewell before getting yourself into your room, letting the door shut behind you, leaning back against it, and sliding to the floor with a groan. God damn him.

* * *

 

Several meetings later, and you found yourselves together in the observatory. Mister Sunshine and Rainbows himself was on the good side of every one of the higher ups, and all he had to do was say that he wanted to spend a little time in there for some personal research, and bingo bongo, you were in.

Clutching several thoroughly-detailed binders and notebooks to his chest with one hand and dragging you upstairs to the telescope by your wrist with his other. You let yourself be whisked away by him, though he moved so fast you nearly stumbled once or twice.

Upon reaching the top, Shiro set down the research materials and began fiddling with the coordinates on the telescope.

“It’s a full moon tonight,” he said as he adjusted the sights.

“Oh?”

You supposed you should be paying attention to moon phases, given that space as a whole and the exploration thereof was the primary focus of the Garrison.

“Did you ever hear stories about the explorations the Garrison used to do regularly up there?” A strange grin you’d never seen on him before spread from one ear to the other.

“Kind of. I think I heard some people at orientation talking about people leaving things up there, right?”

“Yup,” he chuckled. “It started with a couple of the people on the missions accidentally leaving a couple things up there. No big deal. A few small pieces of equipment, nothing that would be missed. But then it got to be such a common occurrence, people started to take things up there on purpose. It was their way of ‘planting their flags’, leaving their mark, being able to say that they had been there. And….aha!”

He beckoned you over to the eyepiece, to which you drew nearer with a growing curiosity.

“Careful, this one is super sensitive. The slightest nudge could throw it out of focus,” he spoke gently as he ushered you into position. You felt his right hand come to rest at your midback. The jolt from his featherlight touch turned every nerve in your body into a live wire. You stiffened slightly at the sensation, and he immediately withdrew, stammering his apologies.

You something inside you softened. You assured him all was well and that he had been fine as he was. Your focus turned to the telescope, you scanned the field in view. This telescope in particular had a supreme magnification level. You could see the moon’s surface as if you were looking down at the ground from an apartment balcony. And what was that down there…? Was that…?

“….A Corona bottle?”

“Yup.”

“But why?”

“Does the name Marion Davenport ring a bell to you?”

Your jaw hit the floor.

“ _Professor_ Marion Davenport? From Engineering?”

“The one and only,” he said with that Cheshire Cat smile creeping across his face yet again.

You were flabbergasted.

“No _way_ ,” was all you could manage.

“The story is that he and his classmates, now colleagues, had a beer-tasting contest before the mission. Each of the people that went wanted their favorite to go up there. So they gathered a bunch of other people in their year and had a blind vote. The Corona won.”

You had no idea how to take any of this new information, or how you would look at Dr. Davenport the same way. He seemed so uptight in the interactions you’d had with him.

Your eyebrows must have given you away, because Shiro gently nudged you away to readjust the lens again.

“It gets better. This is supposed to be the best time of the month to look for stuff because it’s almost all somewhere on this side of the moon.”

“How do you know all this stuff?” You were sure you sounded like an idiot asking.

“There were some people behind me in one of my piloting prerequisites. They mentioned a few things in particular so I did my research. I thought…” his voice caught momentarily, as though he had been about to say something he shouldn’t. “…I thought you would have fun looking with me.”

Over the past few meetings with Shiro, that single heavy thump had become multiple. Multiple thumps had become a steady, heavy beating. And when you had thought that to be the worst of it, a fluttering in the pit of your belly was added to the mix. And damn it if what he’d just said didn’t get you going.

“Okay, here. Take a look at this one.”

This time he more confidently allowed his hand to rest upon you. He was warm. Comforting. Inviting.

You looked through the lens, astonished to see what looked like a lace bralette that had been nailed into place.

“Dr. Velma Nguyen. Isn’t she from your field? It’s linguistics, right?”

“Yeah, holy shit. _She_ was up there?” you implored.

“Story is that when she was still a newbie, there was a certain fire drill, and she was the only one who hadn’t seen that is was on the schedule. The alarm went off while she was changing, and thinking it was a real fire, she left immediately. Didn’t take anything with her. She just ran to the meeting spot. Everyone else was in full uniform. She was…well, _half_ in uniform. The bottom half.”

He removed his hand and you turned to face him. Caught up in the story, your gaze was trained on him.

“Fast forward to the year her group went up there. People were still making the joke about how everyone had seen her bra. Even though it had only been her section, word had spread. People who knew it by word of mouth only were claiming they were there. She never let it faze her though. Her big power play was to take that very bra up there so that this time, if everyone was so eager to say they’d seen it, then they would be able to do just that.”

The story honestly came as no surprise to you.

“I’ve met her many times, actually,” you said. “She’s incredibly spite-motivated so like, that sounds exactly like her.”

“Try taking it a couple degrees south and just to the left,” he said, something daring in his voice.

Following his directions, you happened upon what looked like writing in the gravel with a stick.

“….’was here’. Oh _god_. ‘Sam Holt was here’?”

Shiro cracked up at the way your pitch changed.

You couldn’t fight the laughter either. That’s just the kind of dorky thing the loveable Dr. Holt would do.

Shiro wiped a tear from his eye and regained his composure enough to mention how Dr. Holt’s son, Matt was a classmate of his and who confirmed this to him the other day.

The two of you spent a little more time finding celestial bodies in the sky and taking note of how beautiful it was. For some reason, however, you could feel that he was not looking toward the sky when he responded to your marveling with a tender, “Yeah. It is.”

You weren’t sure at what point his entire arm had found its way around you. But you weren’t about to complain. Maybe you had misjudged him. Maybe he wasn’t some ultra-competitive megadouche hellbent on getting ahead by any use of charm necessary. Maybe it wasn’t so bad that you were falling for him.

As if he had heard your thoughts, he pulled away and bashfully avoided looking you in the eye.

“I, uh, I’ve never really done this before but I… Ah, to hell with it, I’m just going to say it,” he said, steeling himself. The pounding in your chest was a mere flutter compared to what you felt now.

“I like you.”

Time froze.

What? What did he just -? Had you heard that right?

Your blank expression rendered him a nervous wreck yet again and the babbling commenced.

“I mean, I uh, yeah. I really like you. A lot. I kind of have since near the beginning of the semester. You just hold your own so well. Like, you are so confident and smart. And you’re so nice and you’re really, really cute and I’ve just really looked forward to all the assignments we’ve been on together and…ah, I’m bad at this. But I figured since it’s almost the end of the semester I should say – “

“I like you too,” you blurted without a second thought.

And like that, his face lit up. All he could do was sputter, “Y-you do? Seriously?”

You nodded. And with that, you thought he was going to cry.

Neither of you knew where to take things from here. A kiss seemed too straight-forward, and standing here like a pair of dorks (which you clearly were) was doing nobody any favors. But the next thing you knew, you were wrapped in the tenderest embrace you’d ever partaken in. His strong arms held you as if you were made of glass, and you felt secure. You clung to the front panel of his uniform, burying your face against his chest. You could feel his very tremble and you were certain he could feel the same of you.

It felt as though he had been holding you for an eternity before you parted. And oh, how blissful it would have been to stay like that for an eternity more.

You both took care to straighten out your uniforms and adjust yourselves. Shiro was first to break the silence by clearing his throat.

“So… What are…What’s our next step from here?” his voice was nearly a mumble. It was precious, but surprised you. You were sure he’d had romantic partners before. _I mean,_ look _at him_ , you thought to yourself. There was no way he didn’t have experience asking people out, right?

Regardless, you, equally nervous as you may have been, stepped up to the plate.

“A date, maybe?” you asked cautiously.

“Oh! Yeah! Of course, a date. I..I can do that.” God help him.

You really hoped he wasn’t about to ask you for ideas because you honestly had no clue. What could one do for a date on Garrison property. The hell if you knew.

“I know the perfect place. Can I surprise you?” He spoke with such self-assurance and you trusted him.

“Absolutely,” you said with a nod.

“Perfect. You have any plans this Sunday?”

“Nope.”

“Well, then,” he grabbed each of your hands in each of his. “It’s a date.”

He looked you in the eye and brought the backs of your hands to his lips.

He was going to melt you.

* * *

 

_\- Three years later -_

It was 3:22am. Keith was long gone, and you found yourself sitting cross-legged in the corner by the book shelf. The Garrison was certainly a weird mixture of school and military, but you appreciated their attempts at making experiences memorable for the newcomers. You held open your first year’s yearbook, feeling numb as you took note of the awkward, obviously severely faked identical smiles looking back at you. The only one whose smile was a real one was that which lit up Shiro’s face.

Recalling how you’d loathed that look on his face, you marveled at how things, and people, and feelings are so susceptible to error and change. What you’d mistaken to be his trying to get a leg up, selfishly only caring about his own progression through the ranks, was actually him being nervous and smitten, and wanting to do an honest job and always give his all.

If you had asked yourself at the beginning of that physics class in your first year, you never would have guessed that you and this person you’d labelled as your rival would end up hopelessly in love.

You sighed as you slumped against the wall. A part of you felt like you could feel his arm heavy on your shoulder. You looked back down into the eyes of that little photograph and felt a pang in your heart.

It was funny, you thought. The last time you had cracked this open had been the day you and Shiro were unpacking, getting all settled in. Together you rummaged through things neither of you had even thought about in years. You talked about that first class you had together. He had told you that he’d had a crush on you since the second he’d seen you. You had locked eyes with him for a split second, but he swore time stilled and in that split second, he had this feeling in his gut that he wanted to know you. He wanted to know what made you laugh, what made you cry. He wanted to know everything about who you were and what you liked, what you didn’t like, and how to make you happy.

You recalled socking him playfully in the shoulder and telling him he was a sap when he told you that. You remembered the way he distracted you from unpacking with his gently touches which turned more urgent and needy, which turned to deep, heated kissing, which turned to christening the apartment as yours right there on the couch. Not much actual unpacking got done that night, but you recalled the feeling looming over you that this truly was the start of the rest of your lives.

He was your everything. How could he just be gone?

The remorse of what you’d done with Keith twinged at your heart. It made no sense to feel guilty. But here you were. It had meant nothing. The reality of the matter was that you would never see Shiro again. He was gone. Aching over his loss would get you nowhere. And yet still, your heart continued to beat for him.

How had you let tings get so out of hand?

There were no tears left in you to cry. Just the weight of countless worlds pressing down on you. You out the breath you didn’t know you’d been holding. It was going to be another long night, and all you wanted was to go back and be in the warmth of his embrace just one last time.

**Author's Note:**

> I tried to keep it fluffy, I really did. 
> 
> Also, I did edit this myself so...... you know how that goes. Let me know if you catch anything I missed. 
> 
> Feedback is always welcome, and you can find me on Tumblr @ourlordandseivior or Twitter @MalloryAgain for more shenanigans.
> 
> UPDATE: I've made a writing blog if anyone is interested! Come check me out at @nebulous-library on tumblr


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